ORIENT -- Rick Reddaway thought he knew what he was doing when he started farming on his in-laws property. He had grown up on a farm and liked working the land. He was selling vegetables at the Montavilla farmers market.

But then he leased land at Oregon's first -- and only -- farm incubator and realized he didn't know nearly enough about what it takes to run a farm. In his third year, Reddaway is part of the first class of farmers preparing to graduate the four-year program at the Headwaters Farm Incubator Program, run by East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District.

Oregon's average farmer is around 60 years old, and fewer new farmers are joining the trade every year. The Headwaters program is aimed to help people who are interested in farming, but lack the money, language or network to build an agricultural business.

What does an Oregon farm look like?

480 acres is the average farm size

35.7 percent of farms are 10 to 49 acres

$140,227 is the average take of an Oregon farm

756 out of 2,087farms are operated by women

1,130 farms are operated by one to two people

Reddaway met Rowan Steele, the program manager at Headwaters, at the Montavilla farmers market and made him an unofficial mentor.

Reddaway had quit his life in elevator construction to dig in the dirt. He craved a life outside, where he would be connected to the people who consume what he makes. But, he was working on a quarter-acre lot, living with his in-laws and relying on friends like Steele to give him advice on how to be successful.

That's when Steele asked him if he'd be interested in a farm incubator, a first of its kind in Oregon. Farm incubators are increasing throughout the country -- 111 so far -- but none in Oregon. The East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District bought the 60-acre property in the town of Orient from an old nursery, and brought in the first group of farmers in 2013.

"This is a relatively new approach for helping people get farm businesses established," Steele said. "Farmers need to have a community to know where to source a tool or seed, and a lot of beginning farmers don't have that."

The farmers took up five acres of the farm, renting as much or as little land as they want.

Reddaway then moved into a house on the property with his wife and 2-year-old son to be caretaker of the 60-acre farm, good experience if he wants to someday manage his own property - with tractors that break down and irrigation lines that malfunction.

Now, his Abundant Farm produce sells at two farmers markets and is experimenting with a CSA model - community-supported agriculture programs let consumers buy a share of that season's harvest directly from the farmer -- building off a business plan farmers must submit with their initial applications to Headwaters.

Reddaway said he never imagined having to write a business plan to be a farmer. "I just thought I'm going to be a farmer and plant things and people will buy it," he said.

Steele now hopes to have him start a transition to his own farm by this winter. That way, Reddaway and his family can get the new place running and have the safety net of Headwaters help for one year, before fully moving out of Headwaters.

Reddaway is cautiously excited.

"It's scary because I have to make what I'm doing work to pay the bills," Reddaway said. "And a mortgage is a pretty daunting thing to deal with in the beginning."

In 2012, the time of the last U.S. Agricultural Census, there were 23 percent fewer new farms than in 2007. Not only is it hard to start a self-sustaining farm business, there are fewer people to connect with who are in the same position.

"Unless I was really tapped into the farming community, I would not have had these opportunities or know they were there," Reddaway said.

Emily Cooper is already looking at land in her first year on the farm. She works a day job at 47th Avenue Farms in Southeast Portland, and is in her second year of farming at Headwaters.

She is the kind of farmer Steele is looking for: someone with farming experience, but not on their own farm. Cooper has the know-how from several years in the mountains of Wallowa County and then her time at 47th Avenue.

But she didn't have the time or money to set up her own business, now called Full Cellar Farms, while working her day job.

Headwaters makes it possible to do both. There is a barn with equipment and space, a greenhouse where farmers can rent space for plant starts and washing facilities. All the farmers practice organic growing techniques, and the facilities are consistent with that. The plots are small enough that they won't overwhelm a new farmer and can be productive enough to make money with a niche business, such as focusing on apothecary-style herbs, or to stock a few local restaurants' kitchens.

Some of the facilities are nicer than Cooper could likely afford on her own, but she gets a sense for what she will want to invest in and what she won't need. "The experimentation is not just the business model. I can try out different equipment, you get to try out different infrastructure," Cooper said.

Steele is on the farm several times a week, making suggestions and taking care of some paperwork tasks. He organizes workshops on creating business plans, tractor safety, or irrigation methods..

But the real beauty of the place to many is that it puts beginning farm operators next door to each other, which leads to helping each other out. Cooper occasionally runs into someone else on the road or at the wash basin and asks for advice about a pest that's been ravaging her greens. Or, someone offers a source where she can sell her surplus tomatillos.

"There's an unending amount of knowledge out here and it's the best place to learn, I think," Cooper said. "We don't have to do everything ourselves. We can let people try things and see how it works."

In her first year, Cooper tried what's called a "preservation and storage" CSA. People who paid for the program got a box pf vegetables grown specifically for jarring and canning, turning into salsas and sauerkrauts. Cooper is still doing that in her second year, but as a complement to a more traditional set of produce. She has 50 customers this year, and is hoping to hit a point where she can grow what she wants at the size she wants and still afford to stay afloat on her own.

The business model is one of the hardest parts of entering the farm trade. If someone like Cooper, who doesn't want to farm at a size big enough to supply grocery store chains, or someone like Reddaway, who values talking to the people who buy his vegetables, selling enough food to afford to lease land, upgrade equipment and live on the proceeds of harvest season can be challenging.

For some, money and time is not the only obstacle.Tatyana Buzur is one of three farms at Headwaters operated by Russian immigrants. She speaks English, but struggles to hold whole conversations in the language.

Buzur is in her third year at the farm, moving there from MercyCorps Refuge Gardens, about five miles away. Headwaters was a step up from the small-scale farm training she received at Refuge Gardens, which works with recent refugees.

But while Buzur is new to the United States, she is an old hand at growing. She had a large garden that helped feed her family in Russia. Now, she grows many crops favored in Russian cooking and sells at Lents International Farmers Market.

On a June Tuesday when it's sunny enough to see Mount Hood from Buzur's fields, she mentions she hopes to get her grandchildren out to help her soon. She is one the far end of the age spectrum at the farm, which spans from mid-20s to mid-50s.

Steele said he thinks, as they lease more land at Headwaters, the average age will fall in the 30s, where they are producing the people who will step in to take over the 25 to 50 percent of Oregon farms that are expected to change hands in the next decade.

"There's a problem there, because who is going to steward the land in five to 10 years as these farmers age and retire?" Steele said.